Tag Archive for 'Dirty Dozen'

Hey, SuperForest!

I’ve been giving a lot of thought on how I wanna develop (or rather, revive) our “SuperForest Fresh Picks” series; a weekly post in which I highlight an in-season fruit or vegetable and teach you SuperForesters how to pick it. I started it several weeks ago and had a lot of fun with it, but for some reason it lost steam. Which is good, in a sense, because it gave me some time to reflect on what I want to do with it. I’m thinking an instructional video series would work better…

Anyway, I’m setting the intention here and now to be more responsible in keeping up with that and although I don’t have a particular fresh picks prepared for today, I do have something that helps us take a step back and observe grocery shopping at a wider lens. Instead of showing you guys how to pick a particular fruit or vegetable, this handy guide helps ease some of the inner struggle that occurs when debating over that age-old question: “Do I buy organic, or don’t I?”

Of course, the easy answer for most might be “Yes!”, but when considering other factors such as cost and availability, sometimes the decision gets a bit tough. Thanks to the lovely Heidi of “My Paper Crane“, however, that inner struggle just got a lot easier.

Check it out, here’s her handy “Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen Cheat Sheet”.

(click to enlarge)

To the left are the “Dirty Dozen”, or the foods with the highest pesticide residue which was measured after washing and or peeling (thus making them the type of foods you should always try to buy organic). To the right are the “Clean Fifteen” or foods with the lowest or no pesticide residue. You can print it out, fold it down the middle, and it’ll be about the size of a business card that can easily be tucked into your wallet. So easy!

For more information and the full list of the shopper’s guide to pesticides, click here!

And here are the links of our previous Fresh Picks posts, lined up:

• Introduction and California Navel Orange
• Fuyu Persimmon
• 10 Great Health Foods for 2010
• Satsuma Tangerines and Comice Pears

With love,
C